Industry urged to develop technology to make carbon capture more affordable

Mella McEwen

Published 3:14 pm, Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Technology has been and will be transformative for the industry and the nation, said a top U.S. Department of Energy official during Tuesday's luncheon at the annual CO2 Conference at Midland Center.

Charles McConnell, the assistant secretary for fossil energy, said that fossil fuels remain part of "our way of life." His audience included representatives of companies that are using technological advances to open unconventional resources in the Permian Basin.

"In 1850 America, 96 percent of the energy used was produced by man or beast," said the former Texas resident. "With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, by 1950, a mere 100 years, 96 percent of the energy used was from fossil fuels. The Industrial Revolution opened up so much -- energy was abundant, inexpensive and easy to use. At that same time, since 1950, that ratio hasn't changed. Fossil fuels are 87 percent of our energy and it's still abundant, inexpensive and part of our way of life."

Technological advances began through a partnership between the government and private companies also gave rise to hydraulic fracturing, which he noted has recently "exploded" and yielded tremendous new reserves of oil and natural gas.

Tuesday's session focused on carbon management and work being done to capture, utilize and store carbon dioxide. The topic drew representatives from the Clinton Foundation, formed by former President Bill Clinton because of the foundation's interest in carbon capture and sequestration to mitigate climate change and its use in helping increase domestic production.

McConnell said carbon capture technology is still expensive; the cost barrier must be removed to make it more attractive "if we really want an all-of-the-above strategy," he said.

The nation's dependence on fossil fuels, from coal to crude and natural gas, won't change in the foreseeable future, but technology will make its production more environmentally attractive while also making it more cost-effective, McConnell said.

"We're at a moment now where we can debate climate change for days and never resolve that any of us are absolutely sure it's man-made," he said. "I argue that it doesn't matter. Sure, since the Industrial Revolution we've emitted more CO2 into the atmosphere than ever, but it doesn't matter because that's product." By emitting CO2 into the atmosphere, he said. "You're wasting a valuable product."

He said he wants to see as much as 40 to 50 percent of the nation's oil produced through CO2-based enhanced oil recovery, telling his audience they have the "opportunity to create domestic oil, create jobs and change the balance of trade."

He said he wants to see the industry expand the use of enhanced recovery, first by expanding 50 to 100 miles beyond existing projects and then expanding to parts of the country where EOR projects are not being done.

"There's a lot of oil out there," McConnell said. "Do you know where the Saudi Arabia of America was in 1925? Ohio. Findlay, Ohio, and 90 percent of that oil is still in the ground."

McConnell praised the public-private partnership working on carbon capture, use and storage, noting that $3 billion of taxpayer money has gone toward the effort with a potential return on that investment much higher. He pointed out that the country has spent more on carbon capture, use and storage than the rest of the world combined. The challenge, he said, will be developing the next generation of technology that will carry a price tag of capturing carbon at $35 to $40 per ton.

"If we have EOR going on all over the country, we're putting away a lot of CO2, we're making a lot of oil and creating jobs," he said. "It's an 'and' story, not an 'or' story."